This article reflects upon the participant observational method in light of fieldwork undertaken in the Amazonian community of Mapia´ . Mapia´ is the spiritual headquarters of the largest branch of the Brazilian new religious movement of Santo Daime. Noting how my ritual participation gave rise to the ascription of a qualified insider identity, the following explores how variations in the identity ascribed to me (viz. ‘provisional insider’, ‘potential real-insider’ and ‘counterfeit insider’) refract variegated articulations of the Santo Daime worldview. Employing Patricia Hill Collins’ notion of the ‘outsider-within’, I conclude by arguing that it is naive to see participant observation as a medium through which outsider status is straightforwardly transmuted to insider belonging. Rather, participant observation is best regarded as a methodological strategy for negotiating a complex spectrum of identities comprising any number of fluid and variegated subjectivities.